The Townsend Bee Book 39 
honey-flow began the following year there were only about as 
many colonies as there were the year before, and the amount of 
honey secured was very small besides. It is better to make haste 
slowly, when increasing an apiary ; for a live colony in the spring 
is worth many dead ones. 
The plan that I shall here outline will enable the beginner to 
get a fair crop of surplus honey in connection with a pretty good 
increase besides. After the clover honey has been coming in for a 
few days, some of the colonies will cast swarms. No after-swarms 
should be tolerated, so when the prime swarm (that is, the first 
swarm) is in the air, the hive which it came from should be carried 
to a new location at least 30 feet from the old stand. However, if 
it is desirable to set this old hive near where it stood before, it 
should be carried away just the same, and then, at night, after the 
new swarm is hived, the old hive can be moved near this new 
swarm if desired. If this old hive had been placed only a few feet 
from where it formerly stood, many of the bees would have found 
it and would have gone back to it again, strengthening the parent 
colony enough, possibly, to cause an after-swarm. It is desirable 
to have all the flying bees with the new swarm, for it will do prac- 
tically all the work for the next few weeks, there being no working 
force left in the old hive. 
As soon as the swarm in the air begins to cluster, a new hive 
should be set on the old stand, and the sections from the old hive 
put on it whether they are partly filled or not. It is not necessary 
shaking them in front of the new hive; for, even if a few are left, 
to wait until all of the bees have clustered before getting them and 
they would have no place to go to but back to the old location, on 
which, in this case, the new hive stands. Now, if the supers are 
given at the proper time, etc., the bees of this swarm should not 
swarm again during the honey-flow. 
HOW TO GET SWARMS THAT ARE CLUSTERED IN 
INACCESSIBLE PLACES 
If a swarm clusters on a small limb of a tree where it can be 
shaken into a Manum swarm-catcher and carried to the hive, 
almost any one, even without experience, can get along very well; 
but if it clusters on the trunk of a tree, on a fence-post, or on the 
ground, it is rather difficult for one to get it who does not know 
how. We will suppose that the cluster has formed on a fence-post. 
Set the Manum swarm-catcher near the post (a couple of feet high- 
er is all the better), and then with a long-handled tin dipper dip 
most of the bees from the post, and empty them into the swarm- 
